The County Council is preparing to sell the site – although the fields will still be farmed – but the draft development brief says ‘the site presents an opportunity to provide a much needed traveller site’.

Around 100 villagers came out in force on Wednesday night at a public meeting, and resident Colin Small said that it was universal that the plans would not be supported if they included the traveller site.

But already alternative sites where gypsy and travellers could be housed are being looked at.

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A letter from Matthew Jones, Devon County Council’s Estates Corporate Asset Manager, said that they were disappointed that the Development Brief included the note about the traveller site. It added that they were working with the liaison team to look an alternative sites where gypsy and travellers could be housed in the district.

It continued: “It is with the hope that a suitable alternative site can be identified so they won’t have to be included at Baxter’s Farm. Two potential sites have been put forward and if nothing else, has encouraged the looking at alternatives.”

Speaking after the meeting, Mr Small said: “The general feeling and the atmosphere of the meeting was that everyone was against the travellers site being included, but the proposals, with the exclusion of the travellers site were very well received. There was a bit of bickering, but overall, the plans were well received and would be a good way forward for Musbury and could make a nice self-contained hamlet for the village and could be ideal.

“I think there was universal feeling that no-one would be in favour of the plans if there was a traveller site in the middle of the village.”

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When the draft Development Brief was considered by East Devon’s Strategic Planning Committee last month, Cllr Graham Godbeer, who grew up in Musbury, said: “If the idea of a traveller site gained any sort of traction at all, I would be the first one on the barricades. I think the village would be totally, totally against it.”

The aim of the development brief is to provide clear guidance for the development of the site and any future planning application.

When outlined at the Strategic Planning Committee, officers said: “This will inform how development on that site might come forward and report stems from that. There is a draft for the site to convert the existing buildings into residential buildings, and there is space around the buildings that could be used for a community orchard, or more controversially, as a traveller site.

“The logic of that, which is the most controversial element of it, is that we have a need for gypsy and traveller sites in the district and we are struggling to identify sites. It is potentially suitable for a small group of travellers for a particular need for a group we have in that part of the district who are on an unauthorised, but tolerated site, in that part of the district, so there is a potentially opportunity to move them to this site, due to the impending closure of a long-term tolerated local site.”

Layout of the Baxter's Farm development

The development brief says that a housing development is the most likely development to come forward and would be designed to meet the local need, particularly for those requiring smaller, two and three bedroom homes and affordable housing.

The existing farmhouse, stone outbuilding and garden must be retained in any future development and there would be access to the community orchard. Around nine houses could be built on the site, split into two short terraces of three houses and three detached houses with larger gardens.